Long Island's Hired Gun

Frans Nielsen Is the NHL-Best at Shootouts but Struggles to Score in Regulation

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Frans Nielsen has scored on 24 of his 39 shootout tries.
MCT/Zuma Press

By

Mike Sielski

Feb. 25, 2013 8:15 p.m. ET

As he stood alone in the middle of Madison Square Garden, preparing to do the thing he does better than anyone in the NHL, Frans Nielsen took care to size up the friend and former teammate 100 feet in front of him.

A willowy 28-year-old center for the Islanders, Nielsen was waiting to take his team's second shootout attempt during a game against the Rangers earlier this month. While Nielsen lingered at center ice, he said later, he set his mind to outsmarting goaltender Martin Biron—the two engaging in an unseen cat-and-mouse game that doesn't exist in regulation play but has defined Nielsen's career.

Over 355 games with the Islanders, Nielsen has 56 goals—his value is derived mainly from his conscientious defensive play. After scoring a career-high 17 goals last season, he's managed just two in 19 games this year. But whenever the Islanders find themselves in a game that's tied after overtime—so far this season, the Rangers game is the only one that has been—Nielsen morphs into their most important and dangerous player. He has scored on 24 of his 39 shootout tries. That success rate of 61.5% is nearly twice the league average (33%) and is the highest of any active player who has at least 10 shootout goals.

Nielsen's proficiency in shootouts is due at least in part to a signature tactic that he's mastered over his seven-year career. After picking up the puck with an initial burst of speed, he'll downshift as he approaches the opposing goaltender, cruising on his skates, giving no indication of what he'll do. He then makes a single sharp, explosive move, shifting the puck to his backhand and either sliding or lifting it through whatever sliver of space the goalie reveals.

ENLARGE

Frans Nielsen's shootout success rate of 61.5% is the highest of any player with at least 10 shootout goals.
NHLI/Getty Images

As a younger player, Nielsen often watched highlights of NHL games on television and saw veteran forward Alex Kovalev use a similar technique on breakaways, and he's happy to confess to plagiarizing Kovalev.

"You see someone do something cool and think about it," he said. "You learn a ton from watching hockey. It's very important. You see someone do something, and it's like, 'Wow,' and you go work on it."

His attempt against the Rangers, though, called for a cleverer strategy. Biron, who spent the 2009-10 season with the Islanders, was familiar with Nielsen's pet move and knew he was likely to use it. And Nielsen knew that Biron knew. So instead of going to his backhand, Nielsen kept the puck on his forehand side and flicked a soft wrist shot toward the net. Biron never flinched as the puck sailed past him. The goal gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead in the shootout, and they won the game, 4-3.

"I wanted to surprise him," Nielsen said. "I think I did."

That Nielsen possesses enough talent and a deft-enough touch to score more frequently in non-shootout situations is beyond dispute. He led the NHL with seven shorthanded goals in 2010-11, and the qualities that make him a fine penalty-killer—his poise with the puck and his ability to read and anticipate other players' movements—are the same that make him effective in shootouts.

"If he had a few breakaways, he might have a few more goals," Islanders star center John Tavares said. "Fransie's always been a really responsible player, so I think you always see him err on the side of caution."

But there are also less-flattering factors that hold down Nielsen's goal totals. At 6 feet and 184 pounds, he needs to strengthen his upper body to better fend off opposing players—even Islanders coach Jack Capuano acknowledged as much.

Kevin Weekes, an analyst for the NHL Network, said Nielsen doesn't carry the same confidence in game situations that he exhibits during shootouts. "He's playing with a different mental deck of cards, and it shows," said Weekes, a former goaltender with the Rangers and Devils. "A lot of it for him, yes, it's mental, but it's also situational. Where do you position yourself on the ice? Are you on the perimeter? Guess what? You're not scoring from there."

Nielsen's failure to produce more offense does seem to eat at him. He believes he's capable of scoring 20 goals or more in a full, 82-game season, he said, and he sometimes will ask himself, 'If I'm so good in the shootout, why don't I score more during 5-on-5 play?' Sitting in the Garden's visiting locker room after that victory over the Rangers, he became almost wistful, his voice softening as he talked about the comparative ease with which two of his teammates, Tavares and Matt Moulson, can put the puck in the net.

"I just wish I had what those guys have," he said. "If they get it and shoot it, it's a goal. I guess some guys just have that."

For whatever reason, shootouts are different for him, and really, they have been since the Islanders called him up from their minor-league affiliate in Bridgeport, Conn., six years ago. Although Nielsen had appeared in just eight NHL games and hadn't spent more than eight minutes on the ice in any of them, then-Isles coach Ted Nolan selected him to participate in a shootout during a game in Toronto on Feb. 13, 2007. Nolan had noticed that Nielsen had scored on several breakaways during the team's pre-game skate, and a victory over the Maple Leafs would help the Islanders stay in the thick of a close playoff race.

"He poked me in the back and said, 'Yeah, if you miss, you're going back to Bridgeport,'" Nielsen said.

He didn't. The Islanders won that night and reached the playoffs, and while they haven't qualified for the NHL's postseason tournament since, Nielsen's distinctive skill could help them end that drought.

Through Sunday, they were just two points out of the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff berth, and about 13% of all NHL games have been decided by shootout since the league instituted it in 2005. With the regular season shortened to 48 games because of a lockout, then, the Islanders could compete in three or four more shootouts yet—and those shootouts could be the difference in their making or missing the playoffs. "It's going to be a factor," Capuano said, "and Frans is a guy for sure who's going to shoot for us." Of course he will. It's the one time in his life when he has what those other guys have.

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